General Facts :
Surface: 65.610 km²
Population: 18.100.100 inhabitants
Density of population: 249 inhabitants/km²
Capital: Colombo
Official language: sinhala
Official currency: rupia
Imported products: petroleum products, car pieces, grain, rice, sugar, textiles
Exported products: textiles, tea, rubber, coco oil, jewelries, copra
Brut Intern Product: 12.905 million $
State type: Republic

Geographical Characteristics :
Sri Lanka Island has a length of 440 km and a width of 220 km. The main rivers have their springs in the central mountains and they flow in the Indian Ocean. Along the coasts there are some plains and hills. The plains are larger in the north side and are formed by the sand brought by the rivers, including the biggest river in Sri Lanka Mahawe ll Ganga. Sri Lanka is linked with India by some coralline little islands which form together the Adam's Bridge.

Agriculture:
50% of the people work in farms and 29% of the surface of the country is used for cultures and only 7% are grasslands. The main culture is the rice, with an annual production of 2.6 millions tones. The cultivated surface extended is with the irrigation systems from east and south depressions. They cultivate coco nuts on the coast zone and tea and rubber trees in the rocky regions in the center of the country.

Climate:
Sri Lanka has a musonic equatorial climate. In Colombo the medium temperature is 26°C in January and 28°C in May. In Nuwara Eliya which is situated at 1.880 m the temperature is 14°C in January and 16°C in May. The total quantity of rainfall is 150 cm per year.

Transports:
Sri Lanka has 1.583 km of railway and 25.196 km of roads. Colombo, Batticaloa, Trinco malee and Jaffna has airports. The main port is Colombo and Sri Lanka has maritime ways with Maldives Islands and India.

Mining, Energy and Industry:
Sri Lanka has ores of precious and semi-precious jewels. There also graphite and phosphates reserves. From natural evaporation 150.000 tones of salt is produced annually. 25% of the electric energy is produced by thermo electric power stations which use petroleum. The rest of 75% is produced in hydro electric stations. There are important industries for processing of rubber, tea, coco nuts and tobacco. They also constructed some petroleum refineries and textiles factories. Fishing is a very important industry.

Major Cities:
21% of the population lives in cities. Colombo, the capital has 1.963.000 inhabitants. Jaffna is the main city in the north and has 876.000 inhabitants. Kandy (1.251.000) is the old capital and is the main city in the interior and the center for tea and rubber's industry

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Tags: colombo, sinhala, rupia, republic

Date Added: 15 November '06

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